Does the hot water heater have to be working, by law, in Massachusetts?

I got a call from an agent who had a question. He asked, “Does the hot water heater have to be working, by law, in Massachusetts?” The guy was quite frantic, because the hot water heater was leaking at the walk-through and the closing was in a couple of hours.

I agreed to answer questions, when I can, on this blog. But, this situation was wrong in every direction.

When I called him back, I asked how he came to call me about this, and not his supervisor. (Remember that any real estate salesperson is working under the license of a broker, who is supposed to be supervising.) He tells me that his broker is out of state. So, he says, he went on line and found my editorial [a Boston.com blog post] about closings. It said that everything should be working on closing day. So, don’t I agree that the hot water heater should be working?

I tell him that it is not a law. Most Purchase and Sales Agreements hold the seller to deliver the house in the same condition as the inspection, except that the house has been emptied of personal items and broom-clean. The hot water heater should be working now because at home inspection it was working. Was the hot water heater working at home inspection?

He tells me they didn’t have a home inspection. Then he tells me that the house was winterized, so none of the plumbing was on when the Purchase and Sales Agreement was signed. “Oh,” I say, “Did the Purchase and Sales Agreement reserve the right to inspect the plumbing after the water is turned with the requirement that it be in working order?” He doesn’t know.

He says again, that I wrote that the water heater should be working. (He’s annoyed that I don’t agree with him.) I remind him that his client never confirmed that the hot water heater was working. It could have failed before the house was winterized. In a typical sale, there is a home inspection that establishes the condition of the house. Then the Purchase and Sales Agreement hold the seller to that baseline.

I tell him to look at the Purchase and Sales Agreement. See if there is a clause about the plumbing. Your client is protected if the seller agreed that the plumbing would work after winterization. If you have a clause like that, there is something you can do.

What bothers me about this call is that a licensed agent went to Google or Bing for an answer that his supervising broker should have answered. He called me before looking at the Purchase and Sales Agreement. He called me before calling the buyer’s attorney.

There are basic protections that the buyer in this situation seems to have given up. He or she has been working with an agent who has no idea about the possible problems that can ensue. The agent has absent supervision. The agent does not know what protections are in the Purchase and Sales Agreement.

My agents knew more than this guy months before I let them work 1:1 with one of our clients.

Takeaways:

1.      Home inspections are important for protecting your rights to a functioning house.

2.      Your Purchase and Sales Agreement is the binding document that describes the agreement about your purchase. Understand it before signing it.

3.      When interviewing agents, ask them about home inspections, what they see in a typical Purchase and Sales Agreement, and ask who they call when they run into something they have not seen before. I suggest that you avoid agents who think home inspections are not important. I suggest that you avoid agents who don’t know what protections are typically in a Purchase and Sales Agreement. I suggest that you avoid an agent who would look for an answer on line before asking a more experienced agent or the broker in his or her office.